Arts and Humanities Commons^™

A Philosopher Looks At The Bible, Donald Wayne Viney

Faculty Submissions

If there is a single argument of my booklet that is original it is the refutation of the doctrine of biblical inerrancy, which is stated on page 12 and formalized in footnote 3, page 41. This is not the typical argument against inerrancy, for my claim is that the doctrine of inerrancy itself, in conjunction with a well-known fact about the Bible, commits the inerrantist to an inconsistent triad of positions. Instead of insisting that the Bible itself is inconsistent, this argument establishes that the doctrine of inerrancy is complicit in establishing its own falsity. The most reasonable way I …

The Skeptical Dismissal Of Religion And The Skepticism Of The Religious: Emanuel Haldeman-Julius And Religion, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

No abstract provided.

Monkey Business In Southeast Kansas: The Case Of Professor Scott, The 'Scopes Of Kansas', Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

As the drama of the Scopes trial made headlines in July 1925, a little drama was unfolding in southeast Kansas at the Kansas State Teachers College in Pittsburg. A history professor, John G. Scott, was relieved of his teaching duties after his students made plans to hold a “mock monkey trial” in the courthouse downtown. The trial, much anticipated in the local press, never occurred thanks to the intervention of the school president, W. A. Brandenburg. An ardent Christian and creationist, Brandenburg had earlier invited Harry Rimmer, a popular lecturer and debunker of evolution, to lecture at the KSTC and …

Philosophy In A Different Key: My Philosophy In Song, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

I composed my first song in the early 1970s, but all but one of the songs listed here were written after my fifty-fifth birthday in 2008—indeed, the vast majority of what I have composed was written since then. What follows are the lyrics to some of my songs. For each song, I’ve made comments that provide context, an explanation of the sources that I’ve used for inspiration, and what I was thinking in composing the piece. All of the recordings of the songs were made at Phil Ward’s Woodland Studios in Pittsburg, Kansas.

A Slice Of Immortality: Remembering Charles Hartshorne, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

"A Slice of Immortality: Remembering Charles Hartshorne" is an illustrated record of the author's encounters with Hartshorne during the last two decades of Hartshorne's life and of the denouement of these encounters as the author saw to the publication of some of Hartshorne's works, including the last of his books, Creative Experiencing. The document includes an addendum with a list of Hartshorne's unpublished articles.

Talks And Meetings With Charles Hartshorne, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

These are the annotated and illustrated notes that the author took down during and after his talks and meetings with Charles Hartshorne from April 1976 until October 1997. The manuscript includes a bibliography of the author's published writings on Hartshorne.

Monkey Business At The K.S.T.C., Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

In 1925 students at the Kansas State Teachers College in Pittsburg, Kansas, inspired by the Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee and encouraged by their Civics professor John Scott, planned to hold a "mock monkey trial" in the downtown courthouse in Pittsburg. This PowerPoint tells the story.

Stephen Fry And Charles Hartshorne: God And Unjustified Suffering, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

No abstract provided.

Review Of "Truly Human Enhancement: A Philosophical Defense Of Limits ", James Mcbain

Faculty Submissions

Review of "Truly Human Enhancement: A Philosophical Defense of Limits" by Nicholas Agar.

Jules Lequyer: Prophet Of Open Theism (Powerpoint), Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

This PowerPoint makes the case for considering Jules Lequyer as the "Prophet of Open Theism" because of his view of God as creating other creators, as affected by creaturely decisions, and therefore as facing a relatively open future. The PowerPoint was first presented in Dallas, Texas on October 24, 2014 at the Randomness and Foreknowledge Conference sponsored by the Templeton Foundation.

Remembering And Misremembering Hypatia: The Lessons Of Agora, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

The film Agora tells a somewhat fictionalized version of the story of Hypatia of Alexandria (d. 415). I raise and attempt to answer the question whether it is good historical fiction. After summarizing what is known from the historical record about Hypatia, my answer to the question is a qualified affirmative. I note the various historical details that the film preserves. The liberties that the film takes with her story are, by turns, problematic (e.g. reinforcing the view of a fundamental conflict between reason and faith), enlightening (e.g. in the introduction of the fictional character of Davus), unfair (e.g. in …

How Not To Be An Atheist: A Neoclassical Response To The New Atheism, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

The New Atheists (e.g. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, and Victor Stenger) claim that a commitment to science, reason, and morality is inconsistent with theism. Using as my point of departure neoclassical theism as expounded in the works of A. N. Whitehead, Charles Hartshorne, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, I argue that the New Atheism is intellectually anemic, interesting though it is as political activism. The New Atheists criticize a caricature of faith, offer inferior versions of old arguments, commit the mistake of construing theism as a scientific hypothesis, and ignore sophisticated forms of belief in God.

God As The Most And Best Moved Mover: Charles Hartshorne's Importance For Philosophical Theology, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

The work of Charles Hartshorne (1897-2000) may be the single most important factor in dissolving the consensus among philosophers that an entirely absolute deity should be considered normative for theology. What Hartshorne calls classical theism holds that God creates the universe ex nihilo, that God alone has the power to create, thereby entailing that the creatures are wholly uncreative. Classical theism is an anomaly in the sense that the Bible portrays God and the creatures in dynamic interaction with each other. Classical theism also presents various antinomies of how a God with no contingent properties could know a contingent …

Epistemological Practice And The Internalism/Externalism Debate, James Mcbain

Faculty Submissions

The dialogue between internalists who maintain a belief is a case of knowledge when that which justifies the belief is within the agent’s first-person perspective and externalists who maintain epistemic justification can be in part, or entirely, outside the agent’s first-person perspective has been part of the epistemological literature for some time with one side usually attempting to show how the other side is mistaken. Edward Craig argues the internalist/externalist debate is flawed from the outset. Specifically, both internalism and externalism should be incorporated into the correct analysis of knowledge once we revamp that project. The epistemological project, according to …

Epistemic Analysis And The Possibility Of Good Informants, James Mcbain

Faculty Submissions

Edward Craig has proposed that epistemology should eschew traditional

conceptual analysis in favor of what he calls “conceptual synthesis.” He

proposes we start not from the finding of necessary and sufficient conditions

that match our intuitions; rather we start from considerations on what the

concept of knowledge does for us. In this paper I will explore one aspect of

Craig’s proposal – the good informant. It is this aspect that is central to

Craig’s epistemic method and perhaps most problematic. I will evaluate this

concept by first articulating three initial worries that some have had about

the concept and then …

On Skepticism About Case-Specific Intuitions, James Mcbain

Faculty Submissions

Moral theorizing is often characterized as beginning from our intuitions about ethical cases. Yet, while many applaud, and even demand, this methodology, there are those who reject such a methodology on the grounds that we cannot treat people’s intuitions about ethical cases as evidence for or against moral theories. Recently, Shelly Kagan has argued that the reliance upon case-specific intuitions in moral theorizing is problematic. Specifically, he maintains that the practice of using intuitions about cases lacks justification and, hence, we ought to be skeptical about the evidential weight of moral intuitions. This leads Kagan to conclude that we ought …

Moral Callings And The Duty To Have Children: A Response To Jeff Mitchell, James Mcbain

Faculty Submissions

Jeff Mitchell argues that the good reason for having children is that parenthood is a “moral calling” and that one should heed the call out of a sense of duty and responsibility for the good of society. I argue such a “moral calling” account is mistaken, first, in that Mitchell problematically assumes the “basic intuition” is mistaken and, second, it fails to provide the epistemic conditions for the warranted belief that one would probably make a good parent (a central consideration of Mitchell’s). Thus, such a “moral calling” rationale for the having of children is not superior to rationales that …

The Moral Poker Face: Games, Deception, And The Morality Of Bluffing, James Mcbain

Faculty Submissions

Bluffing is essentially nothing more than a type of deception. But, despite its morally questionable foundation, it is not only permissible in certain contexts, but sometimes encouraged and/or required (e.g., playing poker). Yet, the question remains as to whether it is permissible to bluff in other contexts – particularly everyday situations. In this paper, I will look at László Mérő’s argument – one based in game theory and Kantian ethics – to the end that bluffing is morally permissible in everyday contexts. I will argue that Mérő’s argument is mistaken on two grounds. First, it includes an epistemic feature (i.e., …

Charles Hartshorne's Letters To A Young Philosopher: 1979-1995, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

This book brings together all of the letters exchanged between Charles Hartshorne and Donald W. Viney between 1979 and 1995

The Varieties Of Theism And The Openness Of God, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

Charles Hartshorne was an advocate of the openness of God. Contrary to some critiques, he was aware of and responded to criticisms of his views and developed ways of thinking about the varieties of theistic metaphysics.

The Humor Of Jesus Of Nazareth, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

As Rudolf Bultmann advocated demythologization to separate the message of Jesus from outdated cultural forms in which it was expressed, so I advocate what I call desobrietization to discover the humor that Jesus used that has been lost because of translation, prosy interpreters, and preconceived ideas about what it is to be divine. Without pretending to recover the actual words of Jesus, one may nevertheless hear the authentic voice of Jesus and therein detect his wit. One discovers the humor of Jesus in his use of exaggeration, satire, sarcasm, plays on words, and irony. Irony is especially important for it …

Wachter's World: Thomas C. Wachter (1942-1995), Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

This article-obituary concerning Thomas Wachter, includes an account of the character of Wachter's philosophical thinking and of his work in creating a logic crystal, a three dimensional lattice that represents the fundamental relations of implications for elementary logic.

On The Trail Of A French Philosopher Of Genius, Jules Lequyer, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

This is a brief account of my travels in the summer of 1994 to Bretagne to trace the steps of the little-known French philosopher, Jules Lequyer (1814-1862). My wife and I were hosted by Dr. Paul Houillon and his family in Plouguernével. Our meetings with the mayors of Quintin (Lequyer's town of birth) and Plérin (where Lequyer is buried) were covered by two national French newspapers.

'Turnabout Intruder' Turned About Or What Became Of James Kirk And Janice Lester, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

The last episode of the classic Star Trek series, "Turnabout Intruder" can serve as a thought experiment to raise anew the philosophical question about the relation of mind and body. The writers of the episode present the case of the "life entity transfer" between James Kirk and Janice Lester as a question of minds switching bodies, but another view is possible: perhaps the two become temporarily confused about who they are.

The Making Of A Feminist: A Philosophical Autobiography, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

This article--written at the request of Megan Duffy--summarizes my journey to feminism from the female role models in my life, to my discovery of the power of language to shape attitudes and behaviors, to my introduction to Feminist Theology, reading the work of Rosemary Ruether and meeting her when she visited campus.

The Woes Of Creation Science, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

This article presents the case against Creation-Science by detailing its failures with respect to science, philosophy, hermeneutics, and theology. Despite its many flaws it may usefully serve as a good example of a bad thing.

The Right To Life: The Larger Context, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

The question of the right to life extends far beyond the abortion issue to include the question of the moral obligations that humans have to all life on the planet. The usual justifications for denying the right to life to other animals are surprisingly flimsy. The article ends by turning the burden of proof on the human group: By what right do we assume that the earth is ours and that its inhabitants are our servants?

When Gorillas Do Philosophy: Philosophy At Pittsburg State University, 1912-1990, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

Charles B. Pyle (1872-1957), who received his doctorate in philosophy from Boston University under the direction of E. S. Brightman, taught at the Kansas State Teacher's College--now Pittsburg State University--from 1924 until 1947 and was chair of the Department of Psychology and Philosophy from 1924 until 1942. He introduced the basic curriculum in philosophy at the university and, in his final years, directed the thesis of Prescott Johnson (perhaps the only philosophy master's thesis to have been completed at PSU). Johnson went on to teach at Monmouth College in Illinois. This article traces philosophy at PSU from the time of …

Role Models In The Creation/Evolution Controversy, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

The Creation/Evolution controversy, as it is presented in popular literature, often reinforces the idea of a warfare between science and religion. The purposes of this paper are, first, to unravel some of the strands of argument that lend support to the warfare motif and, second to demonstrate that the intellectual landscape since Darwin does not support a view that would make evolution and creation irreconcilable hypotheses.

Combating Theological Ignorance, Donald W. Viney

Faculty Submissions

Theological ignorance is, in large measure, a product of two otherwise positive things: separation of church and state and public funded education up to the secondary level. The result is that students coming into universities are often not taught to think critically or creatively about theological topics. I suggest strategies and resources for dealing with this ignorance through familiarity with the Bible, familiarity with theology and philosophy, and familiarity with issues pertaining to the concept of God.